In general, if the excise tax is based on the weight of the tobacco product then the price will favor the more expensive brand. If the excise tax is based on the cost of the product then the price will favor the cheaper brand.

In Virginia, there is a muted clash over the excise tax on smokeless tobacco, between two tobacco giants both located in the Richmond Area on either side of the James River -- Henrico County-based Altria Group and Swedish Match's Chesterfield County-based North American operations -- could have echoes across the country.

The question: Should the state levy the tax by the units sold, as Altria, with its relatively more expensive premium brands of snuff, wants? Or should it levy a tax that's a percentage of the price, the position urged by Swedish Match, now that it has carved out a healthy chunk of the market with its less costly brands.

The proposed change in the tax would mean lower-priced products, such as Swedish Match's Timberwolf, likely will see higher taxes, while premium brands such as Altria's Copenhagen and Skoal will pay less.

Virginia now taxes smokeless tobacco at 10 percent of the wholesale price. Legislation in the state Senate and House would change the tax to 18 cents an ounce for moist snuff. Both bills originally left the 10 percent tax on other tobacco, including the old fashioned "loose-leaf" or chewing tobacco, like Swedish Match's flagship Red Man brand.Makers of higher-priced snuff said shifting the tax to wholesale prices would have raised the levy on their products. However, lower-priced snuff makers said it would amount to a tax cut for their product and would put all makers on equal footing.

With smoking bans becoming more prevalent, tobacco companies are placing a greater emphasis on smokeless tobacco products like moist snuff, something lawmakers on both sides of the issue alluded to describing it as an industry battle.

Moist snuff, commonly called dipping tobacco, is pinched out of the tin and placed between the lip and gums. The bill would also have applied to snus — tiny pouches of smokeless tobacco that give the hit of nicotine without the spitting. Major tobacco companies in recent years have come out with brands such as Camel Snus.

February 19, 2010 - The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is set to urge all local governments to introduce a total ban on smoking in public places in principle to help prevent health hazards caused by secondhand smoke, sources said. Having judged that the mere separation of smoking areas is not adequate to protect people from secondhand smoke (SHS, environmental tobacco smoke, ETS, passive, sidestream involuntary smoking) the ministry is believed to be seeking a total ban in schools, hospitals, restaurants and other public places.

The ban would also extend to theaters, department stores, private and public offices, stations, hotels and amusement facilities. Taxis and buses would also be included in the ban.

The ministry will allow the operators of such facilities as restaurants and hotels to keep separated smoking areas as a tentative measure if the ban would seriously hurt their business. The ministry, however, would eventually seek the total ban in these facilities, too.The notification will be issued under the name of the ministry's health service bureau chief in line with the Health Promotion Law. The law obliges facilities used by many people to introduce measures to prevent nonsmokers being affected by secondhand smoke. However, violators will not be penalized.

A ministry panel of experts discussing ways to combat passive smoking in the workplace is to compile a report in April obliging business operators to try to prevent passive smoking. But opposition from business operators is expected as the measure would require a revision of the Industrial Safety and Health Law.

The Kanagawa prefectural government, which in April will be the nation's first local government to enforce an ordinance to ban smoking inside public spaces, welcomed the move. "We'd hoped our efforts would spread throughout the nation. It's great to hear that the national government decided to make the move," said Yasuo Ide, an official of the prefectural government's tobacco management office. (Kanagawa Eateries Going Smoke-Free.)

Bungaku Watanabe, editor in chief of monthly magazine Kinen (nonsmoking) Journal, said separate smoking areas are not enough to prevent secondhand smoke, and that people who want to quit smoking also need support. "A total ban on smoking is necessary. The government should go further than sending the notice," Watanabe said. "It's important to promote antitobacco measures by revising the law to impose penalty on offenders or by increasing tobacco prices."

Hisashi Nakai, secretary general of the Japan Food Service Association, an industrial body of restaurants and catering businesses, said that while it respected the basic societal trend toward protecting health through the prevention of secondhand smoke, it also wanted to cater to customers who wanted to enjoy tobacco while drinking at a bar. "We want to decide our policies after reading the notice and seeing the moves of local governments," he said.

Szymanczyk disclosed Altria's thinking on the market as he spoke to stock-market analysts in New York. Tobacco users who don’t want to smoke and don’t want to spit are the customers Altria Group Inc. plans to focus a lot of its efforts.

“One new business opportunity for us is filling the increasing demand for smokeless products among adult smokers who do not find current MST [moist smokeless tobacco, or snuff] satisfactory,” Szymanczyk said. Szymanczyk said those tobacco users are seeking smokeless tobacco that doesn’t require them to spit the way they must with moist snuff.

That could mean a variety of “snus,” a traditional Swedish-style oral tobacco, “or other future products,” Szymanczyk said. He did not elaborate on those, though Altria researchers have for years explored dissolvable strips and inhalers. The company already sells a Marlboro-branded and Skoal snus.

Szymanczyk said Altria believes the tobacco market is now split into four segments — smokers of cigarettes and cigars; “dippers,” or people who prefer traditional snuff and oral tobacco; people who want spitless products such as snus; and a group that smokes and wants smokeless products that are easier to use when they can’t smoke.

For the last group, Altria’s U.S. Smokeless unit has launched a new “slim can” of snuff in pouches, Szymanczyk said. Many who aren’t accustomed to taking a pinch of snuff find the pouches, with their premeasured amounts of snuff, easier to use.

Szymanczyk said Altria’s Skoal brand plans a number of initiatives to expand its pouch business, while its Copenhagen brand plans two new long-cut varieties of snuff, because many dippers find the sliced leaves of long cut simpler to handle than the traditional finely powdered snuff from Copenhagen.

He said the company’s flagship Marlboro cigarette brand’s two newest varieties, each called Special Blend the territory where it is selling its new Black & Mild untipped cigarillo, he said.

February 19, 2010 - The Members of the Parliament (MPs) from the ruling GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) party proposed the annulment of the full smoking ban that should become effective in Bulgaria on June 1, 2010.

The proposal states that for restaurants, clubs and coffee shops with an area less than 100 square meters, the owner can himself decide if smoking would be allowed, while for larger establishments there must be a well-isolated smoking space.

The motive behind the proposal is that the full ban would harm restaurant businesses and the tourist sector and would be frequently violated anyway.Bulgaria ranks second after Greece in the European Union in terms of number of regular smokers as a percentage of the population, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey. More than half of its men and more than a third of women in Bulgaria smoke for a population of 7.6 million.The full ban is to remain effective for all other public spaces, the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party proposes. GERB says the transition to a full ban must be done in stages and completed in the next 5 years.

The smoking ban was decided on by the previous Parliament and is part of the Health Act amendments.

February 18, 2010 - SAN FRANCISCO -- On a recent February day, the man behind Marlboro spoke about a business under siege. Whether from increased federal taxation to municipal smoking bans, cigarettes and its OTP brethren—together muscling some 40% of total inside convenience store sales—are often portrayed as gasping from the onslaught of legislative assaults.

Yet, a deeper look suggests the air is clearer than one might think. States have not exploited tobacco as harshly as feared to narrow budget shortfalls. The federal excise tax to fund a children's insurance program swung its executive cleaver across the entire tobacco slate, arguably damaging weaker niche segments more than cigarettes or moist smokeless.

So on February 9, Altria Group chairman and CEO Michael Szymanczyk—whose premium brands Marlboro, Skoal and Copenhagen headline the cigarette and MST segments—spoke not of doom and gloom, but of optimism.

"I tend to see opportunities where others might see barriers to success," he said in his speech. "Many of the perceived barriers to success in tobacco can be viewed as opportunities. These opportunities are developing due to changing adult consumer behaviors regarding the tobacco products they choose to use." That is not to say the picture is scenic. Indeed, the landscape is clearly mixed, with retail tobacco revenues up, while transactions are generally down 3% to 7% across much of the country. To that end, Szymanczyk acknowledged the challenge of delivering a message that is authentically upbeat and not just spinning a yarn."Some people believe that the best times are behind us, and that the times we're in now may offer the hardest test we have ever faced," he said. "That's an understandable mindset, especially when you consider the toll this economic recession has taken on America's businesses and families. Even as we see gains on Wall Street, there is still a lot of pain on Main Street, and probably on your street as well.

"When the news reports are full of bad news," he continued, "it can be hard to remember what 'good' felt like. So, it's natural for people to worry, to see only problems on the horizon, and to focus intensely on the things they perceive as barriers to success. That's certainly true of the people writing and talking about the tobacco industry these days."

Not Cigarettes Alone.. No, Szymanczyk is not in denial. Hardly. Rather, as Apple and Starbucks found wedges in businesses that faced institutional challenges, the Altria Group sees opportunities ripening in smokeless tobacco and large cigars. As a result, the Richmond, Va.-based outfit has been noticeably aggressive on the acquisition front and in R&D over the past few years in the other tobacco products (OTP) sector.

"The fact is that smokeless tobacco and machine-made large cigars have largely offset the decline in overall cigarette sales," he said. "In fact, one of the fastest-growing categories in c-store dollar sales is OTP, which has grown its average sales per store by over 12% per year over the past five years. Once you factor in those increases, you see that the total tobacco space volume based on poundage historically declined by about 1% per year."

This may be an exaggeration.. Volumes may be declining, but cigarettes remain Altria’s biggest business by far, accounting for $14.4 billion in revenue in 2009 compared with Smokeless category that brought in $1.2 billion. In general, cigarettes account for approximately 91% of expenditures on all tobacco products in the U.S.. Total United States expenditures on tobacco were estimated to be $88.7 billion in 2005, of which $82 billion were spent on cigarettes. In 2005, consumers in the United States spent $2.61 billion on smokeless tobacco products, and more than $1 billion on cigars each year. (CDC Smoking and Tobacco Use: Economic Facts About U.S. Tobacco Use and Tobacco Production)

He continued, "The reality is that the increasing diversity of products out there gives adult tobacco consumers a wider and increasingly innovative variety of options within the total tobacco space. So we can no longer measure success by one category alone. And we shouldn't. Instead, we should adjust our focus so that we can see the bigger picture and take advantage of the opportunities it offers.

The anti-smoking group ASH Ireland has today reiterated its call for a ban on smoking in cars transporting children under 16 years of age. The call for the ban comes on the eve of Ash Wednesday, traditionally a day chosen by smokers to quit.

The Department of Health said this afternoon there are currently no proposals to introduce a ban on smoking in cars where there are children present but it said the matter will be kept under review. It added that it accepted exposure to cigarette smoke is particularly dangerous in enclosed spaces, such as cars, and it is currently reviewing the measures that have been undertaken in other countries in this regard.

But Dr Angie Brown, chairwoman of Ash Ireland, said passive smoke is a Group 1 cancer-causing carcinogen and as 14 per cent of Irish children are exposed to these carcinogens and other toxic substances in cars our legislators must protect them. "As we discovered with use of seat belts and use of mobile phones in cars the voluntary code is insufficient," she said.

She stressed that passive smoke can be as much as 23 times more toxic in a car than in a house because of the confined space. Furthermore, she said, in a recent survey 79 per cent of the public said they would support smoke free car laws."The Irish Government has set the trend all around the world on tobacco health legislation and has received deserved recognition both at home and abroad. This initiative to protect children's health, while travelling in motor vehicles would be widely welcomed . . . We now ask the Government to proceed and legislate for this health initiative," Dr Brown added.

Revenues and Customs agencies teams are due to make complete inventories of tobacco products held in these warehouses and to compare them with the companies’ records. Inspectors are due also to verify the contractual relationships of Bulgarian traders with foreign companies.Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s Center for the Study of Democracy has reported that annual revenues from illegal activities, including the trade in illicit cigarettes, amounts to at least BGN4 billion to BGN5 billion, a figure that doesn’t include money generated through illegal financial schemes, the illegal trafficking of historic objects, and money generated from the gray economy.

The $33,000 fines were levied by the Supreme Board of Radio and Television against E2, which airs ‘Mad Men’, and TV8, which airs the French cartoon, ‘Tin Tin’. The stations argued that the various programs had been produced before the on-air smoking ban was instituted.

February 17, 2010 - According to recent figures from Statistics Canada is the rate of smoking among young people is dropping -- down 8% in the last year. The bad news is the smoking rate of people aged 20 to 24 is still above the national average, which has, incidentally, remained relatively static.

More than one in five young Canadians are still lighting up, despite reams of medical and scientific evidence proving cigarette smoking is bad for your health -- and of those around you. Overall, the smoking rate in Canada in 2009 settled at 17%, down slightly from 2008.

The downward trend is encouraging, but it is astounding that so many people are still willing to put their lives at risk with this costly habit.

The younger generation should know better. It grew up in an era when public health messages about the dangers of smoking were plentiful -- in schools, in commercials, even on the packages of cigarettes themselves. But despite the availability of this information, too many continue to fall victim to this habit that claims the lives of 45,000 Canadians every year. Not surprisingly, as education levels rise, the rate of smoking falls further. Nearly a quarter of people with a high school education are smokers while only one in 10 university graduates admit to puffing away.

One of the challenges in the battle against smoking is that tobacco is a legal product, and it is product that brings in gobs of cash to provincial and federal treasuries through taxes applied at the point of sale. So while governments have taken strides to limit and reduce tobacco use -- all but eliminating smoking in indoor public places, banning tobacco advertising, prohibiting sale to (but not consumption by) minors -- they haven't taken the ultimate step and banned tobacco.

The sad reality is governments are addicted to tobacco tax revenue just as too many Canadians are addicted to smoking.

February 16, 2010 - Two Turkish television stations were each fined $33,000 for airing shows such as the U.S.-produced "Mad Men" that feature smoking.

The fines levied by the Supreme Board of Radio and Television were successfully challenged by channels E2, which airs "Mad Men" and TV8, which airs the popular French cartoon, "Tin Tin," the Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday, February 16th.The stations argued the various programs had been produced before the on-air smoking ban was instituted, the newspaper said.

Additionally, the required practice of blurring out cigarettes was criticized as counterproductive by one of the board's members, who said the distortion attracts more attention. In the animated "Tin Tin," only villains smoke, whereas in "Mad Men," the 1960s advertising executives are constantly seen puffing cigarettes and drinking liquor.

Click to enlarge..February 16, 2010 - The Council (the European Council is the institution of the European Union (EU) responsible for defining the general political direction and priorities of the Union) today, Tuesday, February 16th adopted a directive updating EU rules on the structure and rates of excise duties on cigarettes and other tobacco products (17778/09 + 5807/10).

The directive is intended to ensure a higher level of public health protection by raising minimum excise duties on cigarettes, whilst bringing the minimum rates for fine-cut tobacco gradually into line with those for cigarettes. The outcome of a fourth four-yearly review of tobacco taxation under directives 92/79, 92/80 and 95/59, it is aimed at modernising and simplifying the rules and making them more transparent.The new directive includes the following provisions:– Cigarettes: the Council decided to increase, by 1 January 2014, the monetary minimum excise rate to 90 EUR per 1000 cigarettes and the proportional minimum to 60% of the weighted average sales price, from 64 EUR per 1000 and 57% at present;European Union - agrees to raise the minimum tax on tobacco products sold in the region..)– Transitional period for cigarettes: the new rules allow for transitional arrangements until 1 January 2018 for member states that have not yet achieved, or only recently achieved, the current minimum rates, namely Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Romania;– Quantitative restrictions for cigarettes: the directive allows member states not benefiting from the transition to impose a quantitative limit of at least 300 cigarettes on the number of cigarettes that may be brought into their territory from member states applying transitional arrangements. It also allows member states applying those arrangements, once their rates have reached 77 EUR per 1000 cigarettes, to apply quantitative limits with regard to member states whose rates have not yet reached an equal monetary level;– Fine-cut tobacco: the Council decided to increase the minimum excise duty requirements for fine-cut tobacco as follows: member states will comply with either a proportional minimum or a monetary minimum, amounting to 40% of the weighted average sales price and 40 EUR per kg on 1 January 2011, 43% and 47 EUR/kg on 1 January 2013, 46% and 54 EUR/kg on 1 January 2015, 48% and 60 EUR/kg on 1 January 2018 and 50% and 60 EUR/kg on 1 January 2020.

Dino Lottaz, 49, devised the smoking wall in his Restaurant Caravelle in Bosingen, in the canton of Fribourg Canton, Switzerland (located in the west of the country, Switzerland consists of 26 cantons (member states), when local authorities introduced a ban on smoking in public areas, including bars and restaurants, this month.

He said: "I enjoy a cigarette myself so I know how smokers feel. Someone suggested cutting holes in the wall. It's a bit of a joke but it actually works quite well. It can get very cold sometimes so it's not really an option to stand outside for a smoke. "My clients seem to approve. They can legally have a cigarette without leaving the establishment."

February 16, 2010 - Smokers will be banned from fostering or adopting children, under new rules introduced by Midlothian Council, Scotland, United Kingdom (UK). Anyone wanting to care for a child under the age of five will be required not to have smoked for at least six months. The policy will also apply to all children with a disability or respiratory problems such as asthma. All children over five years old will also be given the choice to be placed with a non-smoking family. Council workers will be offering foster carers and prospective adopters help to quit smoking. Colin Anderson, the council's director of social work, said the change would only result in the loss of one foster carer. He said: "It is a balanced approach. We would hope to encourage all carers to stop smoking, but to come in with a blanket approach would impact drastically on the provision we have."

John Banzhaf, founder and Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) reminds us, "This is just the latest step in a growing movement to protect the most vulnerable and most defenseless victims of tobacco smoke pollution. Noting that there are many reasons supporting the prohibition on adoption by prospective parents who smoke, even if only outdoors.For similar reasons judges in more than half our states in the USA, and a fewin foreign countries, have recognized that smoking around children can be not only dangerous but deadly, and have ruled that smoking around a child can be grounds for losing custody. In some situations, parents have been prohibited from smoking 24 or even 48 hours before a child is due to arrive in the home because of the lingering effects of tobacco smoke.

Similarly, more than a dozen states have ruled -- or are in the process of issuing rules -- prohibiting smoking in the presence of foster children, and several states and cities have banned smoking in cars when any children are present.

"Smoking kills thousands of children every year (largely from respiratory infections), is also a major factor in SIDS, and causes millions of medical problems in kids each year ranging from asthmatic attacks (and new cases of asthma) to ear aches, so protecting young children from tobacco smoke is long overdue," says Banzhaf.

"A growing number of people consider smoking around children to be the most prevalent and dangerous form of child abuse, so it is not surprising that an adoption agency would want to protect their wards to whom they owe both a legal (fiduciary) duty and a moral obligation."

In a situation where a smoker seeking to adopt claims that he or she does not smoke in the home, there may be no way to independently confirm that, or to make sure that there are never any exceptions -- e.g., when the weather is very cold, when the smoker is too ill to go outdoors, etc. For more comments from Professor Banzhaf such as the dangers of third-hand smoke for children read the second reference below in its entirety.

February 16, 2010 - About 30 percent of middle and high school students who are below the legal age to smoke buy cigarettes using taspo IC cards, which were introduced to prevent minors from lighting up, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry study panel.

The panel, chaired by Nihon University Prof. Takashi Oida, said about 40 percent of these underage taspo users obtained the cards from home or family members.The panel conducted the survey on minors' smoking habits on 240 middle and high schools nationwide in autumn 2008, and 96,000 students in 172 schools responded.

Regarding the introduction of taspo cards, which are used to confirm whether purchasers are of legal adult age when buying cigarette packs from automatic vending machines, 61 percent of the underage students who said they regularly smoke once a month or more said it has become more difficult for them to buy cigarettes.

But 29 percent also said they had bought tobacco using taspo cards. Among students that smoke daily, 42 percent said they had used taspo cards.

Regarding how they acquired the cards, 15 percent said they brought the cards from home; 22 percent said they borrowed cards from family members; and 7.9 percent said they undertook procedures on their own to obtain the cards from the tobacco industry's card-issuing authority.

The percentages of students who smoke at least once a month were 2.9 percent among male middle school students, 2 percent among female middle school students, 9.8 percent among male high school students, and 4.5 percent among female high school students. These figures marked a considerable fall from those of the previous survey 12 years ago--11 percent of male middle school students, 4.9 percent of female middle school students, 31 percent of male high school students, and 13 percent of female high school students.

February 16, 2010 - The prevalence of consuming chewing tobacco is almost double than smoking tobacco in the country, revealed a study yesterday. At the dissemination programme of the research findings at the National Press Club in the city, it was also revealed that women are taking more chewing tobacco than men.

The prevalence of non-smoking tobacco chewing is 43.2 percent while the tobacco smoking is 23 percent in the country, the study showed.

It found that 42 percent men and 1.3 percent women are habituated to smoking tobacco. On the other hand, 34 percent men and 41 percent women are taking chewing tobacco that include jarda, gul(tobacco dentifrice) and tobacco leaf.

The study titled 'Baseline Survey of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors' was conducted on 5,332 individuals of 3,668 households of Dhamrai area in 2008.

Prof Ridwanur Rahman, head of the department of medicine of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College was the principal investigator of the research.The programme was organised by Non-Communicable Diseases and Other Public Health Interventions, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in collaboration with the University of New Castle, Australia.

Another study tiled 'Risk Factor of Acute Coronary Syndrome' was conducted from April-June 2009 on 400 samples. The study revealed that 70 percent of those who are suffering from cardiovascular diseases had previous record of smoking, whereas those who are not suffering from heart diseases had previous record of smoking for only 45 percent.

While presenting the research findings, Dr Abul Hasnat Milton, co-investigator and senior lecturer of New Castle University, said 30 percent of all deaths occur from heart diseases worldwide. "Some 213 per 100,000 individuals aged above 30 years have coronary heart diseases in the world and 80 percent of the people dying from cardiac diseases are from developing countries," he said, adding that those who don't take fruits regularly are four times more vulnerable to heart disease than those who take 80 grams of fruits regularly.

High blood pressure, stroke and mental stress also increase the risk of heart diseases, said the experts, adding that awareness should be increased in this regard and besides this, taxes should be imposed on chewing tobacco also.

Dr Mominuzzaman, chief consultant of United Hospital, moderated the session while Prof Ismail Khan of National Drug Control Committee, Dr Badiuzzaman Bhuiyan, health and family welfare secretary of Awami League, Prof Mujibur Rahman and Dr Rubina Yasmin, assistant professor of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, also spoke.

February 16, 2010 - From Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010 smokers in Trinidad and Tobago will soon be stripped of their right to light up in public as they wish as a new law that seeks to curb the practice is to take effect this week.

In a release issued over the weekend, the Health Ministry said the Tobacco Control Act that was passed back in December 2009, will be proclaimed by President George Maxwell Richards and enforced in phases from Wednesday onwards. Under the Act, smoking in any enclosed public places is outlawed.

The Health Ministry said the new law was designed to protect people from the exposure to second hand tobacco smoke, especially children, babies and pregnant women, as well as preventing others from taking up the habit.“It also seeks to prevent smoking by young people, especially children, to restrict promotional activities by tobacco manufacturers, enhance public awareness of the hazards of tobacco use, ensure that consumers are provided with sufficient information to make more informed decisions on using tobacco products and prevent illicit trade,” the release added.

At the opening of special meeting of the Council for Social and Human Development (a body made up of Caribbean Health Ministers) last week at the Hyatt, Port of Spain, Health Minister Jerry Narace said he made a commitment to undertake a public education initiative before enforcing all of the clauses of the Act and to work on the specific regulations to support the Act.

’The Ministry of Health will now intensify its public education campaign regarding the Tobacco Control Act, the upcoming proclamation, and the health effects of tobacco use and second hand smoke in general. We shall also be launching a Tobacco Cessation Campaign, as well as other clinical and non-clinical smoking cessation programmes to support the people who wish to quit smoking,’ he said.

February 16, 2010 - The Spanish government has postponed a parliamentary debate on tougher anti-smoking legislation in the hope of mustering more support for the controversial plan, sources of the Health Ministry said Monday, February 15th. The government had intended to present the law during the Spanish European Union presidency in the first half of this year, but may only do so later in the year, the sources said.

The current 2006 legislation bans smoking at work and in public places such as hospitals, schools or shopping centres. Bars or restaurants measuring less than 100 square metres, however, may allow smoking. Bigger venues must have separate smoking areas if they allow smoking.

In practice, only around 40,000 of Spain's more than 350,000 leisure establishments have created smoking areas or banned smoking. The planned legislation would prohibit smoking in all bars and restaurants.

Health professionals have long urged a total ban, describing smoking as one of Spain's top public health problems that causes more than 50,000 deaths annually.

The government says the ban is necessary because smoking is the biggest killer in Spain, with 50,000 smoking-related deaths annually. Surveys show that about 30% of Spaniards smoke. A government-sponsored opinion poll released in December showed more than 70% of respondents backed the ban. (Smoking curbs: The global picture, 7/1/2009)

But bar and restaurant owners vehemently oppose the ban, saying it could force the closure of 70,000 establishments and kill 200,000 jobs. The opposition conservatives said they disapproved of "coercion" and favoured softer measures such as educating the population and financing treatments to help people quit smoking.

February 16, 2010 - Austin Rowan, head of the task group cigarettes from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that smuggling to the European Union (EU) is on the increase.

On the eastern border of the EU, the fight against cigarette smuggling from Ukraine, Russia or Moldova is intensifying as traffickers cash in on the lucrative trade.

"Why? Because the profits are so enormous," he added.

"There is a huge difference in the prices between Ukraine and the European Union for example", Rowan added. While a pack of cigarettes costs more than eight euros in Ireland and more than five in France, it can be bought for between 30 euro-cents and one euro in Ukraine, which sits on the eastern border of the EU.

Seizures of contraband cigarettes exploded in the European Union from 4.4 billion units in 2005 to 5.2 billion in 2008, according to the latest figures from OLAF. Most of those cigarettes, whether counterfeit or genuine -- but smuggled into the EU without taxes being paid -- come from China, Ukraine and Russia.

After putting a liaison officer in China last year, the European Anti-Fraud office is hoping to appoint three more in other "tobacco hotspots": Moscow, Kiev and the Egyptian capital Cairo.

On the frontline of this struggle are the EU countries that border Ukraine: Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Seizures of contraband cigarettes in the four countries increased by almost 50 million in one year: from 843 million in 2008 to 891.5 million in 2009, according to their own official figures.

"If you're going to bring cigarettes from Ukraine, then you will use the Eastern borders," said Rowan. "But if you are going to bring cigarettes from Dubai or from China, then the EU ports are interesting -- like Dublin, Antwerpen, Rotterdam."

Poland and Romania had also become "countries of destination" for smuggled cigarettes, having previously only been used by smugglers to get their goods to western Europe. A 2009 increase in excise duties in Romania helped bring that about.

Romanian customs and border police have stepped up their efforts. "About 21 million illegal cigarettes have been confiscated since the beginning of 2010," Dorel Fronea, deputy director of Romania's border surveillance division for the Customs service, told AFP. "This is a record in Romania."

February 16, 2010 - Pipe and cigar smoke may be more harmful than once thought. While some believe pipes and cigars are healthier than cigarettes, a major known cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study directly links pipe and cigar smoking to decreased lung function.

VIDEO - The Association of Pipe and Cigar Use With Cotinine Levels, Lung Function, and Airflow Obstruction..

Researchers conducted a population-based study to determine whether pipe and cigar smoking was associated with elevated cotinine levels (the end product of tobacco, which can be detected in the urine), decrements in lung function, and increased odds of airflow obstruction. Among 3,528 participants, those who did not smoke cigarettes but did smoke pipes or cigars were more likely to have airflow obstruction than those who had never smoked.While cotinine levels among current pipe and cigar smokers were lower than among current cigarette smokers, the relative differences in cotinine levels may reflect differences in nicotine absorption but not necessarily exposure to harmful products of tobacco smoke.

“Our study shows that pipe and cigar smoking is associated with decrements in lung function that are consistent with obstructive lung disease,” said R. Graham Barr, MD, Dr.PH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Presbyterian and lead author of the study. “These findings, together with increased cotinine levels in current pipe and cigar smokers, suggest that long-term pipe and cigar smoking may damage the lungs and contribute to the development of COPD. Physicians should consider pipe and cigar smoking a risk factor for COPD and counsel their patients to quit.”

In a related editorial, Michael B. Steinberg, MD, MPH, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, stresses the importance of educating the public, and expresses concern for the rising rate of tobacco use in the United States. “We are now witnessing the concerning trend of increased use of other tobacco products,” Dr. Steinberg writes. “As changes in public health policy have made cigarette smoking less socially acceptable, a distinct set of characteristics are associated with cigar and pipe use, such as sophistication, affluence, education, and celebration. These images, largely fostered by the tobacco industry, perpetuate the idea that these products play a suitable role in our society.”

February 15, 2010 - DUBAI — With the region tightening the noose on the nicotine habit in the region, ban on the sale of single cigarettes will be implemented strictly in the country as part of new GCC-wide guidelines (Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)) formulated last week on advertising and promotional restrictions of tobacco products.

The move is part of a wide range of anti-smoking measures being taken by the government to put an end to the menace and discourage the youth from taking up the habit. Experts say the move will discourage youngsters from seeking a quick drag which is now readily available in retail sales.

The guidelines on controlling tobacco advertisements and promotions that are based on the Singapore model were drafted in Kuwait last week — over a year after they were proposed. The UAE officials say they are just a small part of a whole range of rules under the newly passed National Anti-Tobacco Law.

According to the guidelines, vendors will require a special permit to sell tobacco while the outlets selling tobacco products will be spaced at least 200-500 metres away from residential areas, mosques, schools, hospitals and clinics.

Though the law prohibits advertisement, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, details on how it will be implemented are being worked out on a GCC level, said Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, Head of the National Tobacco Control Committee at the Ministry of Health.According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UAE is among the eight countries in the region that has implemented a comprehensive ban on advertisement, and is now working towards tightening loopholes.

“Most of these points were decided in a meeting held in Oman last year, we just put them in a legal document last week,” she said. Though a basic agreement binds them, each country is free to implement the rules as suited.

In the UAE, promotion of tobacco products will also face censorship on national TV and the Internet. “TV plays or dramas that show actors smoking will also be censored since they can become role models,” explained Dr Wedad.

As per the guidelines, sale of cigarettes over the Internet is also prohibited. Also banned is the open sale of cigarettes through mechanical machines or selling of the product through direct or indirect means using words such as light or mild and low tar. Any violations are subject to fines according to the law, added Dr Wedad.